The present invention relates to a paper feeding/piling apparatus for feeding next sheets piled in advance without stopping the press when sheets piled on a pile table run out in a feeder for a sheet-fed press.
Sheets piled on a pile board on the pile table are sucked one by one by a sucker from the uppermost sheet, and the sucked sheet is supplied to a printing unit. In this case, the pile table is automatically moved upward in accordance with a decrease in the number of sheets, and the upper end face of the pile of sheets is maintained constant. When the sheets on the pile board run out, the press is stopped, and the pile board is moved to the lower limit. The empty pile board is replaced with a pipe board full of sheets piled in advance. The pile board is moved upward to a predetermined position, and upward movement of the pile board is then switched to automatic upward movement, thereby restarting paper feeding.
In a conventional paper feeding/piling apparatus, as described above, the press is stopped and reloading of sheets is performed. For this reason, productivity is degraded, and waste of paper is increased at the time of restart of paper feeding. A paper feeding/piling apparatus capable of reloading paper without stopping the press has been proposed.
In a conventional paper feeding/piling apparatus of this type, skills are required, and operability is not always satisfactory. In addition, reloading must be performed within a short period of time, and a large number of sheets are wasted within this period of time if the operator is not skilled. In addition to halt of the press, manual operations are required, and satisfactory energy saving cannot be expected.